Production costs are reduced when the fixed overhead costs can be spread out over a large volume of output, adding little to the cost of each individual item. Scheduling also affects production costs. When a high-volume retailer signs a contract for a large order from a given manufacturer, that manufacturer can then schedule the work evenly throughout the year. This avoids the additional costs that go with ups and downs in the orders that come in unpredictably from the market, leaving the manufacturer’s workforce idle during some weeks. The fact that profits are contingent upon efficiency in producing what your customers want, at a price that customers are willing to pay – and that losses are an ever present threat if a business fails to provide that – explains much of the economic prosperity found in economics that operate under free market competition. Profits as a realized end-result are crucial to the individual business, but it is the Prospect of Profits – and the threat of loss...